More from Prevention: Does Healthy Fast Food Exist?[header=How Snacking Habits Have Changed]Is it any wonder our collective waistlines have ballooned in just a few generations? “In 1960, a candy bar was a treat that you saved up to buy,” says Brian Wansink, PhD, a professor of applied economics and management at Cornell University and the author of Mindless Eating. In those days, a mere twinge of hunger was not regarded as a reason to indulge. Hunger is a natural state, just like being tired, sad, or cranky. While it’s not pleasant, it’s not an emergency either. Think back to when you were a child and asked your mother for a snack before dinner. She didn’t treat it as if it were some kind of crisis. She simply said no, warned you against “spoiling your appetite,” and told you to go outside and play.So what happened? Beginning in the 1970s, personal income increased–while government policies lowered the price of key snack-food ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup. Manufacturers hired food scientists, who fueled the trend by learning what tastes consumers found irresistible, even addictive (namely, sugar, salt, and fat). Then they figured out how to pack those flavors into betcha-can’t-eat-just-one combinations. On top of it all, business schools began to churn out a new breed of executive, the brand manager, who was trained to market products aggressively as fun, exciting, and even good for boosting your energy. “The business plan of the modern food company has been to put their foods on every street corner, making it socially acceptable to eat 24/7,” says David Kessler, MD, former commissioner of the FDA and the author of The End of Overeating.The result has been a nutritional disaster. In their natural state, whole foods may be high in fat or sugar, but they’re rarely high in both. Today we have man-made snack foods with a tantalizing combination of fat and sugar rolled into one. “Foods have become so ‘hyperpalatable’ that they’re now capable of hijacking our brains the same way that nicotine and alcohol do,” says Ashley Gearhardt, the lead author of a Yale University study on food addiction.Seven Snacks Under 100 CaloriesSNACK 12 (6") corn tortillas + 2 Tbsp salsaSNACK 21 cup pineapple chunks + 2 tsp shredded coconutSNACK 325 pistachiosSNACK 41/2 cup Cheerios + 1/2 cup fat-free milkSNACK 54 oz honey Greek-style yogurtSNACK 6A handful (1/8 cup) of dry-roasted pumpkin seedsSNACK 75 fresh apricots More from Prevention: 10 Healthy Kids’ Snacks
